nowfound

Work · June 10, 2025

I made a 3D printed VTOL drone

I made this 130 mile capable VTOL drone in only 90 days. It can fly for 3 hours on a single charge. That would make it one of the longest range and endurance 3D printed VTOLs in the world. This is the thing I'm most proud of building to date! Before this project, I was a total CAD, 3D printing and aerodynamic modeling beginner. I had only built and flown one VTOL before. SPECS Wingspan: 3.9 ft (1200 mm) Length: 2.5 ft (770 mm) Weight: 5.6 lb (2.55kg) Airframe: foaming PLA (Bambu PLA-Aero) and PETG structural parts printed on A1 printer, CFRP booms and spars Battery: Li-ion silicon anode…

I made a 3D printed VTOL drone launched on June 10, 2025 with 418 votes, #47 of 7,999 launches that month and more than 99% of that year's launches. The site was still online in September 2026, 1 year on.

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In plain words

This is a 3D-printed VTOL drone with a 130-mile range and 3-hour flight endurance on a single charge. The aircraft weighs 5.6 pounds and features a 3.9-foot wingspan, constructed from foamed PLA and PETG printed parts with carbon fiber reinforcement. It uses Amprius silicon-anode batteries, brushless motors, and ArduPilot flight control. The builder designed and built it in 90 days as a second VTOL project while learning CAD, 3D printing, and aerodynamic modeling from scratch.

written from the facts on this page · September 2026

From the sources

With no background in CAD, 3D printing or aerodynamics modeling

Tsung Xu Jun 10, 2025 39 26 6 Share I made this 130 mile capable VTOL drone in only 90 days. It can fly for 3 hours on a single charge. That would make it one of the longest range and endurance 3D printed VTOLs in the world. Reid Hoffman called my project “superagency in action” and compared it to the Wright Brothers’s work pioneering powered flight! Before this project, I was a total CAD, 3D printing and aerodynamic modeling beginner. I had only built and flown one VTOL before . My CAD skills were restricted to extrusions of basic sketches. My Bambu A1 3D printer was only one month old, and I had never tried printing foaming PLA. I had never used any aerodynamic modeling tools to simulate…from tsungxu.com

In the maker’s words, at launch

I made this 130 mile capable VTOL drone in only 90 days. It can fly for 3 hours on a single charge. That would make it one of the longest range and endurance 3D printed VTOLs in the world. This is the thing I'm most proud of building to date! Before this project, I was a total CAD, 3D printing and aerodynamic…

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